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When your Memory Dumps are Dumped

 

 This project was sunset / cancelled / not finished in your business jargon of choice, but I thought the notes were valuable.

 

Why would you want to dump your memory?

To check for malicious programs running, digital forensics, stuff like that.


What do you use to dump memory?

I tried DumpIt and [program     name], as well as NotMyFault (Which is a Windows-sanctioned program), but you can do it with tools already installed on Windows. There's probably multiple ways to do it, but here are some instructions that are, yes, involved. Your own risk and all that.


DumpIt and the unremembered program crashed my PC without creating a .mem file, but NotMyFault...also crashed, but it did create the file! So I will be using the semi-built-in Windows tools for this purpose.


It's at this point where I learn that Memory Dumping is a serious step, and isn't recommended except as a last resort. I will leave the information below that clarifies the Windows SDK Instructions.

How Do I Read a .meme File?

Check out these instructions.

It does lead into a downward spiral of documentation, so in short, Download the Windows SDK at this link (the installer), and click through; When you approach all the checkboxes, only select Debugging Tools For Windows

The original instructions under Open The Dump File here say the folder will be called Debugging Tools For Windows, but it's not in the Program Files directory. It doesn't seem to exist because I only installed DTFW.

 It may be installed under "Windows Software Development Kit", so let's go look for it. I did find it in my Add/Uninstall Programs section, now to find the file path.

Which I only found by uninstalling and re-installing, as the install screen starts with "Specify Location", and the location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\. Repeat the previous steps as noted.

Hint: If you're more used to Linux than cmd, it's dir to show all the files in a directory, not ls, and you use cd .. to go up one directory.

And now that we have the correct file path, there's a Debuggers directory I can check.


Live Tools

So, without making a .mem file, how do we check our RAM? We can use Live RAM Process Analysis tools, like Belkasoft.


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